Johnson County Historical Museum

The Johnson County Museum will partner with the Johnson County Library to create an interactive, fully searchable database of the museum's 10,000 historic photographs of Johnson County and its inhabitants, dating from the 1860s to the present. The museum and the library will collaborate to develop JoCoHistory.net, a Web site devoted to the history of Johnson County. The Web site will include photographs and online curriculum, providing teachers and youth leaders with lesson plans on major themes in Johnson County's history and how they relate to larger themes in American history. The museum's curator of education will develop the online curriculum with input from the library staff. The Museum Educators Advisory Group will review the curriculum to ensure that it meets Kansas state curriculum standards. This grant will be used to contract with an outside vendor to complete the physical scanning of the photographs, purchase the computer hardware to store the images, and purchase the software to serve as the delivery vehicle. The project goals are to provide public access to historic resources and to preserve the original photographs.